How science works — OCR A-Level Psychology
Test yourself on How science works with OCR A-Level practice questions.
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How science works explained
Psychology does not stay in the laboratory.
Read the full explanation
Findings reach practice through bodies that weigh evidence in public to make decisions about scientific issues. Research councils choose what gets funded, ethics committees decide what may be done, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides evidence-based guidelines that heavily influence which treatments the health service prioritises. Psychology contributes to the success of the economy and society: the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme argued that treating common mental disorders costs less than the lost output and benefit payments it prevents. Memory-retrieval research reshaped police interviewing via the cognitive interview, and shift work research reshaped rostering. Cost, ethics, and evidence are weighed together.
Learners should be aware of the nature and principles of scientific enquiry through knowledge and understanding of the following concepts: the study of cause-and-effect; falsification; replicability; objectivity; induction; deduction; hypothesis testing; manipulation of variables; control and standardisation; quantifiable measurements.
These ideas describe how a discipline earns the word science. Popper argued a theory counts only if it forbids something, so a prediction that cannot fail is unfalsifiable. Reasoning from observations up to a general claim is induction; reasoning down from a theory to a prediction is deduction. Objectivity means measurement does not depend on who took it. Quantifiable measurements provide numerical data (e.g. a score out of 10) to ensure this. Manipulation of variables involves deliberately changing an independent variable (e.g. drug vs placebo). Combined with control and standardisation of extraneous factors, this permits the study of cause-and-effect. Hypothesis testing compares data against a null hypothesis. Replication is the public test: a finding seen once has not yet earned belief.
Your focus
- Explain how society makes decisions about scientific issues using specific mechanisms like ethics committees and funding councils.
- Describe how psychological research contributes to the success of the economy and society using concrete examples.
- Evaluate the application of psychological findings, considering ethical implications and socially sensitive research.
Show all 6 objectives
- Define and provide examples for key scientific principles including falsification, replicability, and objectivity.
- Differentiate between induction and deduction in the context of theory development and hypothesis testing.
- Explain how the manipulation of variables, control, standardisation, and quantifiable measurements enable the study of cause-and-effect.
How science works exam tips
Marking Points
- Name a mechanism rather than saying the government decides: funding councils, ethics committees, clinical guideline bodies (like NICE), government advisers, and media reporting each play a distinct part in turning findings into policy.
- Give a worked economic example, such as treatment that returns people to work reducing benefit payments and lost output, and note that absence caused by untreated mental ill health is an economic cost.
- Give an application with its research origin attached: the cognitive interview grew out of memory-retrieval research (such as context reinstatement), and it increases the amount of accurate detail a witness provides.
- Evaluate through socially sensitive research, since findings about groups can be used well beyond the intention of the researcher, so how conclusions will be applied matters as much as whether they are valid.
- Define each principle with a concrete example attached; a manipulated independent variable plus controlled extraneous variables is what permits a cause-and-effect statement in a laboratory memory experiment.
- Say what falsification demands, which is that a hypothesis be stated so that some outcome could refute it, and contrast that with a claim which accommodates every possible result.
- Distinguish induction from deduction plainly: observation first and theory afterwards is induction, theory first and a testable hypothesis afterwards is deduction.
- Tie objectivity to concrete controls such as standardised instructions, operationalised measures, double blind procedures and inter-rater reliability.
- Explain hypothesis testing as the comparison of a calculated value against a critical value at a stated level of significance, followed by retaining or rejecting the null hypothesis.
- Explicitly define manipulation of variables as altering an independent variable across conditions, and quantifiable measurements as gathering numerical data (e.g. reaction times in milliseconds) to allow statistical analysis.
Examiner Tips
- 💡This content turns up as an extended item asking you to discuss the contribution of psychology to the economy or to society, so prepare two applications in depth rather than six in a list.
- 💡Bring in issues and debates, especially ethical implications and socially sensitive research, to earn the evaluation marks in a discuss question.
- 💡Short definitions carry marks here, so learn a one sentence version of each principle with a short example clause ready to attach.
- 💡Longer items ask whether psychology can be considered a science, so structure the answer around these principles and then bring in the counter-argument from qualitative and idiographic work.
- 💡Where a scenario lacks control or standardisation, name the principle that is threatened and say what the researcher should have done instead.
Common Mistakes
- Listing economic benefits with no psychology in them. The mark is for the link from a specific finding or therapy to the saving, not for general remarks about the economy.
- Assuming evidence alone decides policy, when cost, public opinion, ethical acceptability, and press coverage all shape what is actually adopted.
- Ignoring the harm side altogether. Psychological research has been used to support discriminatory policy, so an answer treating every application as beneficial is one-sided.
- Treating replication as repeating your own study. The replication that counts is an independent team obtaining the same result by the same method.
- Saying a theory is unscientific because it turned out to be wrong. Falsification is about whether a claim could be shown wrong, not about whether it has been.
- Confusing objectivity with holding no opinions. It is a property of the measuring procedure, and quantifiable measures exist precisely to supply it.
- Claiming cause from a study with nothing manipulated, which is the single commonest error in this part of the paper.